Record 4M fentanyl pills seized at Port of Lukeville: CBP

( NewsNation ) — Agents at the Port of Lukeville in Arizona made the largest fentanyl seizure in U.S. Customs and Border Protection history Tuesday, seizing four million fentanyl pills, Director of Field Operations for the Tucson Sector Guadalupe H. Ramirez posted to X .

The drugs, weighing over 1,000 pounds, were found in the frame of a utility trailer.

Federal officials have surged resources and seized more drugs in California and Arizona in recent months, fearing Mexican drug cartels will shift their smuggling pipeline east.

Fentanyl seizures in the Tucson Sector at the Nogales Port of Entry have exceeded 2.2 million pills this fiscal year, according to CBP.

The synthetic opioid is one of the leading causes of death in America, resulting in an estimated 74,702 overdose deaths in 2023 , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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